Karen Knorr’s Gentlemen Series Included in Major Exhibition on Masculinities

Masculinities: Liberation Through Photography
20 February–17 May
Barbican Art Gallery, London

In Conversation:
Karen Knorr, Anna Fox and Sabina Jaskot-Gill
Thursday 26 March, 7pm

Through the medium of film and photography, this major exhibition considers how masculinity has been coded, performed, and socially constructed from the 1960s to the present day.

Examining depictions of masculinity from behind the lens, the Barbican brings together the work of over 50 international artists, photographers and filmmakers including Laurie Anderson, Sunil Gupta, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Isaac Julien and Catherine Opie.

In the wake of #MeToo the image of masculinity has come into sharper focus, with ideas of toxic and fragile masculinity permeating today’s society. This exhibition charts the often complex and sometimes contradictory representations of masculinities, and how they have developed and evolved over time. Touching on themes including power, patriarchy, queer identity, female perceptions of men, hypermasculine stereotypes, tenderness and the family, the exhibition shows how central photography and film have been to the way masculinities are imagined and understood in contemporary culture.

In Conversation: Karen Knorr, Anna Fox and Sabina Jaskot-Gill

On 26 March, join photographers Karen Knorr and Anna Fox in conversation, as they discuss the aesthetics and socio-political issues explored in their photography.

Photographers Anna Fox and Karen Knorr sit in conversation with Sabina Jaskot-Gill, Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery. The discussion will explore the aesthetic questions and socio-political issues broached by two important series of work presented in our current exhibition Masculinities: Knorr’s Gentlemen (1981–83) and Fox’s My Mother’s Cupboards and My Father’s Words(2000).

Book tickets for the in conversation event with Karen Knorr, Anna Fox and Sabina Jaskot-Gill:

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2020/event/in-conversation-karen-knorr-anna-fox-sabina-jaskot-gill

More information about the exhibitions and the related events programme can be found on the Barbican’s website:

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2020/event/masculinities-liberation-through-photography